Auction Name: 2026 February 26 Historical Manuscripts & Texana Signature® Auction

Lot Number: 47340

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/6328*47340

Richard Waterhouse and Stephen Blount Document Signed. Four pages on lined stationery, 8 x 12 inches, "State of Texas, County of San Augustine"; February 19, 1861. A Civil War-dated document acknowledging a substantial debt owed by Waterhouse to M. D. Cooper & Co. of New Orleans. In part:

"The firm of Waterhouse, Wallace & Co. which firm was composed of Richard Waterhouse Sen. Richard Waterhouse Jr. and John R. Wallace, was indebted to M. D. Cooper & Co. of the City of New Orleans, Louisiana in the sum of Five Thousand Four Hundred and eighty seven dollars and four cents by open account..."

Signed, "Richard Waterhouse" and "Richard Waterhouse Jr." Additionally signed by Stephen W. Blount as Notary Public for San Augustine County, as well as J. M. Kinsey and James Waterhouse as witnesses.

Richard Waterhouse Jr. (1832-1876) ran away from home as a teenager to enlist in the Mexican-American War. After the outbreak of the Civil War, he helped raise the 19th Texas Infantry. He was commissioned its colonel in May 1862 and served under Generals Hindman, Holmes, and Taylor in Arkansas and Louisiana. Waterhouse participated in the battles of Milliken's Bend, Mansfield, and Pleasant Hill. The autograph of this oft-overlooked Texas general is considered extremely scarce.

Stephen William Blount was a signer of the 1836 Texas Declaration of Independence who arrive in San Augustine, Texas, where he settled near Nacogdoches in August 1835. Only months after arriving, he volunteered for a short stint with the Texas army. Blount later became the first county clerk of San Augustine County, served as postmaster from 1846 to 1849, and during the Civil War acted as a fiscal agent for the Confederate States of America.

Condition: Lightly toned with a few minor instances of ink blotting; two horizontal stain lines on page four. Very minor edgewear.

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